Sunidesus Knits

Captain's Binary

This started out as a desire to give some knitterly presents to the w00tstock guys. My original idea was something smaller (like hats) but once I figured out what I wanted to do for the pattern I knew that wouldn't work. They will be (or have been, depending on when this is read) delivered at the San Diego w00tstock on July 21.

So... the pattern. The large chunk of colorwork is the lyrics to the song "The Captain's Wife's Lament" by Paul and Storm converted into binary. If you've ever been to a w00tstock you know why. The 0s are color, the 1s are black. There's a little two row stripe near the top and bottom that says "w00tstock 3.0", also in binary.

The code starts at the top and goes around and around and around. Because it's a bit hard to tell which end is up the next photo is a close up of the front/top.

The following photo is a close up of the back/top.

My gauge swatch was a lying liar (shocking I know) so these ended up a little bit longer and skinnier than I thought they would. However, considering the song... it's actually kind of appropriate that they're a bit long. If I ever do this pattern again I'd go up one needle size for the colorwork section. I'd probably also adjust the meat of the colorwork so that each row would be 8 "characters" long instead of 7. That would make each row 64 stitches instead of 56 and would solve the "slightly too long and skinny" problem. To be clear, I'm very happy with how they turned out, there are just a couple things I would adjust slightly.

Each scarf took about two weeks to make and used 4 and a third skeins of the black. Each scarf used either exactly one skein of the color or just a teensy bit more than one skein. For some reason the North Woods scarves used exactly one skein (with maybe a yard or two leftover), but the Midwinter skeins ran out with about 5 rows left and needed just a little bit of a second skein.

The black is 100% Peruvian Highland Wool; the color is 70% Wool 30% Nylon.
If it needs washing it'll have to be hand washed gently and then laid flat to dry. It will felt if it's put in a washing machine.

Edited 7-24-11 to add:

The scarves were delivered very late Thursday night (or very early Friday morning depending on how you look at it) at w00tstock 3.0 and were very well received. Which made me very happy! There's nothing quite like having one's knitterly presents be appreciated.

Left to right (not counting the photobombers in the back...) that's Storm, Liz, Paul, me, Adam, & Wil.

Sunidesus Reads

Encounter at Farpoint

I thought I had finished all the Next Gen books, but then when I was checking my list of what I've read against my master list of ST books... I discovered a few that I had somehow missed. So here I am back at the beginning.

Novelizations are always a different kind of reading experience. Scenes that were in the script, but didn't make the final cut, are frequently in the book. As well as ones that are added to make it a decent length.

The pacing and structure were a little weird but it's been a while since I've actually watched Farpoint so I'm not sure if that's a product of the episode or something that happened when it was turned into a book. There are a couple places with conflicts that are in progress, but the focus suddenly shifts to something mundane. Which in general I understand, but when the characters involved in the mundane stuff should really be part of resolving the conflict... it just feels off.

Sunidesus Reads

Titan: Taking Wing

I wasn't originally planning on reading the Titan books in my ST:TNG re-read. But then while reading the Destiny series and the Typhon Pact series I discovered that there were some characters on Titan that sounded interesting.

This takes place just after the events in ST: Nemesis. Riker finally accepts command of a ship and leaves Enterprise behind. The original plan had been for their mission to be exploration, but they end up being sent to try to help the various Romulan groups deal with each other instead.

There is a lot more diversity in the "aliens", they aren't all just "humans with funny noses". Which is a lot easier to do in a book than a TV show! The dynamics of those kind of differences are always interesting to me.

However, there's a bit of a "soap opera" feel to me. There's a lot more of an emphasis on who's doing what with whom than I've noticed in previous ST books.

Sunidesus Reads

Lost Souls

Everything comes to a head in this one. Including finding out where the Borg actually came from in the first place. I did see the Borg origins coming from a ways off, but it seemed fairly obvious so I think it was probably supposed to be figured out fairly early on. And it was good to finally have an answer to that particular question.

The massive amount of devastation is heart-breaking. Entire planets that have been part of the Trek universe for a long time are gone or severely damaged.

Sunidesus Reads

Gods of Night

The first in the Destiny series, and I'm back to my ST reading after about two months of other books.

There's been a run up to the Borg being active again in a major way and this series is when they make themselves known. The action jumps around between the Enterprise, Titan, and Aventine, with flashbacks to a very early NX ship the Columbia.

The Borg are attacking in large numbers and they aren't assimilating people any more. They seem to have decided to wipe out the Federation instead. The Enterprise is mostly focused on fighting back and Picard is starting to get a little bit "Ahab"-ish again.

Titan is following what they think might be the Borg's travel method and are investigating that. While Aventine is trying to figure out what they can learn from the wreck of the Columbia. In the flashbacks Columbia has encountered an incredibly powerful, and secretive, race.

All the story-lines do eventually start to show their connections.

I haven't read any of the Titan books so there's a number of new characters there, as well as a couple familiar ones that I'm glad to see again. There are a number of them that seem really interesting so I think I'm going to have to add those books to my list.

Sunidesus Reads

Trouble and Her Friends

This is one of those books that I have pulled off the shelf at the library and book stores I don't know how many times and just didn't quite get around to reading. It was originally published in 1994 so I've been thinking it looked interesting since high school.

Finally got around to it and quite enjoyed it!

The imagining of how what is essentially the internet works is really cool and reminds me a bit of Hackers. Except that I always thought the Hackers world was how those kids imagined what they were doing, while in this book the people really do travel into a virtual world. Or at least their minds do. It's something that I think is really attractive, the idea that there could be a pseudo-physical representation of lines of code. That security features would be actual walls that could be breached instead of just code. It's certainly much more interesting that way!

Character-wise, there's a couple main characters and a lot of it has to do with friendship and loyalty. Reconnecting after a number of years and figuring out how to rebuild that relationship.

There's also a lot of interesting legal and government/law-enforcement stuff that I think remains very relevant. Who exactly has jurisdiction over what happens in a virtual space? What happens when countries can't or won't agree on that issue?

Sunidesus Reads

Half the Blood of Brooklyn

Joe is now working for one of the clans instead of going it alone. Which is how he ends up having to deal with a war between a couple of smaller clans in New Jersey. His girlfriend is also not doing well and he ends up having to finally make a decision regarding infecting/saving her or letting her die.

For some reason this one struck me as a lot more violent and crude than the previous two. There were a number of parts where the language and events bothered me, which isn't something I remember happening in the first two books. I have no idea if the series has actually escalated or if I'm not remembering the previous books accurately.

Sunidesus Reads

American Gods

I so badly wanted to like this book. I see it being raved about constantly, it's hugely popular in sf/f circles, and it's by Neil Gaiman for crying out loud! But I just didn't. I hate it when that happens, I always feel like I've failed somehow.

Meeting all the different gods and learning all those myths was interesting. And being from Wisconsin I liked all the Midwest bits (and really need to go to House on the Rock someday), but unfortunately that's about as far as it went for me. It just never really felt like it was going anywhere. Lots and lots of back-story and exposition for all these people, but I had a hard time finding the purpose in all of it. It felt like I was waiting and waiting for the book to get going, and then it was over.

Sunidesus Reads

The Other Human Race

This is the second Fuzzy book by H. Beam Piper. The issues I had with the first one remain, which is unsurprising. But again, the story itself is good and enjoyable.

There is a bit of a paternalistic attitude towards the Fuzzies, which grates on me personally a bit, but the Fuzzies themselves seem to want to be taken care of by the big people. And there are people who want to take advantage of them so some degree of protection does seem to be necessary.

Plot stuff... Fuzzies are being kidnapped and the good guys need to figure out who's behind it and why, as well as rescuing the Fuzzies of course.

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